Menzies College pupils Brittany Tiller and Beth Scott (both 16) will fly to Malaysia next week with the New Zealand under-18 women’s ice hockey team.

The pair will fly to Auckland today where they will take part in a two-day training camp with the team. Afterwards the pair will head to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for eight days to compete in the Challenge of Asia-Malaysia Cup Tournament.

Both players have been named in the team two years consecutively.

Last year they travelled to Thailand to compete in the same tournament, Beth said.

“It was insane – it was a completely different culture,” Beth said.

“Last year there was a team from India – they had hardly any gear – it was really rough. It was good to get to know what they’ve done to get where they are,” she said.

The team donated some of their ice hockey gear to them afterwards, she said.

The pair said they were both looking forward to Malaysia and embracing the culture again as they did in Thailand.

They would enjoy “just knowing their culture and having a good time as well as having a good experience skating over there”, Brittany said.

They also looked forward to spending time and bonding with their team members.

“There’s a really good team spirit and everyone helps everyone.”

The pair were named in the team after an under-18 ice hockey development and selection camp was held in Gore early last year.

Beth, who has been playing ice hockey for six years, said she got interested due to her family having an involvement with the game and had never looked back.

“I got sick of just watching it,” she said.

Brittany said she started on the rink as a figure skater but turned to hockey after being convinced by Beth.

“This is my second season playing,” Brittany said.

The pair will have one more year in the under-18 national team. They will go on to trial for the national women’s team, the Ice Ferns, which they both said they aimed to play for in the future.